Many current software applications are designed to operate on a wide variety of different electronic devices. For example, a video streaming application may be designed to operate on smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, gaming consoles, television streaming devices, in-home entertainment hubs, and other electronic devices. Each time changes are made to the application, the application must be tested to ensure that the changes have not broken any core functionality. This testing is typically carried out on a host of different test devices. For example, a testing lab may include and use many tens, hundreds, or thousands of different electronic devices to test the application. Various software and hardware tests may be run on each of the different devices to ensure core functionality works as intended.
Managing such a large number of test devices can, however, become burdensome. Each time an electronic device under test has a hardware or software failure or freezes and becomes unresponsive, the device must be removed from the testing rack and a new device must be positioned in its place. To remove a device from the testing rack, an information technology (IT) worker must reach behind the device, unplug all of the cables, and then reach behind the device again to plug in those same cables into the new device. This inefficient form of plugging and unplugging the devices can be time consuming, especially when managing large numbers of test devices.